1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a knee protecting airbag device in which an airbag to be expanded and inflated with an inflating gas let in protects the knee of a driver.
2. Description of Related Art
In the prior art, the device for protecting the knee of a driver is known in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-32195, EP Publication No. 0684167A1, EP Publication No. 0818360A1 and so on. In the prior art, more specifically, there is a device which has a pad near a column cover below a steering wheel to protrude to hold the knee of the driver when activated. There is another device which has an airbag to expand and inflate to protect the knee of the driver when activated.
However, the knee protecting devices of the prior art have a room for further improvement in the proper protection of the knee of the driver although the activated pad or airbag covers a wide area.
More specifically, there are partially arranged hard parts such as a key cylinder, a parking brake release lever or a telescopic mechanism control lever around the knee of the driver. In the devices of the prior art, however, a pad or an airbag is arranged for evenly covering not only those hard portions but also non-hard portions apart from the hard portions.
On the other hand, when the device acts, the driver mostly depresses a brake pedal. In this case, the space between the column cover and the knee of the driver is narrow. Therefore, it may be difficult to arrange a pad or an airbag smoothly between the column cover and the knee of the driver. Thus, there is a room for improvement in the proper protection of the knee of the driver from this viewpoint as well.